Developments in Nuclear Power and Radioactive Waste Management

Abstract

Currently occupying only a small portion of the energy sector, nuclear power is increasingly becoming a promising contender for energy resources of the future. With growing concern of climate change and excessive carbon emissions from fossil fuels, nuclear is widely being pursued as an alternative energy resource that does not produce carbon dioxide. Nuclear power has been the source of environmentally hazardous byproducts of its own, however, and issues with radioactive waste have in many ways halted progress in nuclear power development and implementation. New advances now attempt to solve the many issues of the past, associated mostly with nuclear fission. Some of these developments, including the promising use of nuclear fusion, are evaluated as a means of solving the energy crises as well as the radioactive waste issues.